Bearing Specialists Association - Certification

• Raises professionalism
• Increases employee pride
• Provides a competitive edge
• Promotes focus on product features and benefits
• Reduces customer's overall cost
• Establishes the association as an important standard-setting body for professional competence in the bearing field

 

AMI Bearings, Inc.
Applied Industrial Technologies
BDI
BDI Canada, Inc.
Bearing Headquarters Company
Bearing Service, Inc.
Bearings & Drives, Inc.
Bearings Specialty Company
GMN Bearing USA
Koyo Bearings USA
Motion Industries (Canada) Inc.
Motion Industries, Inc.
Motorcar Parts of America
Pacific International Bearings
Parts for Trucks Inc
Shuster Corporation
Simatec Inc
The Timken Corporation
Wajax Industrial Components
Werner Electric Supply

“B&D Technologies employees, both inside and outside sales have embraced the CBS program. Those who are certified are looked upon in a higher regard by fellow employees and customers. B&D has put a great deal of effort and resources into training since our beginning. The CBS program has just dovetailed into and enhanced our existing training programs. Employees who progress through training, especially the CBS program, consistently receive higher evaluations from their managers. We feel this certification program is a positive reflection on our company, our employees, and our commitment to have highly trained employees qualified to solve customers’ problems.”
Andy Nations
Bearings & Drives, Inc.

"We have made a real commitment to encourage all of our staff at BDI to pursue BSA's Certified Bearing Specialist designation. Our customers appreciate the confidence certification brings to their business, and, I believe, our employees are genuinely proud of their accomplishment when they become certified. Our goal is to certify all BDI Canada sales personnel."
Cameron Lawrence
BDI Canada, Inc.

"In a large company like Motion Industries with hundreds of branch locations, BSA's Certified Bearing Specialist program establishes an important training benchmark. Certification assures our many customers that all of those Motion Industries employees have the training and education to meet their needs. We also believe that the opportunity to pursue certification is an important benefit to offer Motion employees."
Bill Stevens
Motion Industries, Inc.

BSA's Certified Bearing Specialist (CBS) program is all about developing the expertise to help customers and end users make the best bearing decisions. Follow the links to below to read about these solutions provided by Certified Bearing Specialists.

• Gregory (Keith) Boutwell, CBS and Executive Account Manager at B&D Technologies (a division of B&D Industrial)


• Dale Renner, CBS and Sales Representative at Bearing Headquarters Co.


• Michael Odom, CBS and CSSR at Applied Industrial Technologies


• Guy Gendron, CBS, Technical Sales Representative for Timken Canada LP

Developed by professional bearing experts with the assistance of Southern Illinois University (SIU), the CBS examination tests the necessary skill sets to certify an individual's reliability in meeting customers' growing demands, and those required to successfully perform the role of Bearing Specialist.

The eligibility requirements are:

• Applicant must be currently employed full time and have been for at least the past 2 years either in the bearing distribution or in the bearing manufacturing industries or have worked a minimum of two years in a position involving the identification and selection of appropriate bearings for use by the military service.
  

Testing for Bearing Specialist Certification is conducted in the U.S. & Canada by the National College of Testing Association (NCTA) at their test centers. Review the locations at www.ncta-testing.org and indicate the site on the CBS application form. CBS applicants are responsible for the test center fee. BSA also has testing arrangements with a number of colleges and universities in each Canadian province and will make arrangements with additional facilities as needed. The CBS exam has 75 questions and candidates have up to 3 hours to complete it.

CBS candidates receive the Study Guide and sample tests. The Study Guide prepares applicants for the certification exam by leading them, step-by-step, through tasks, outcomes and review questions on a representative sample of the technical information addressed by the certification exam itself. Four pretests help applicants determine when they are ready to take the final test. Applicants take one pretest before they begin the program to measure their strengths and weaknesses. They take a second pretest after completing the study guide to see what they have learned from their study. The third and fourth pretests serve as a means of review before taking the final certification test. BSA also publishes a "Certification Update" newsletter that is available only to Certified Bearing Specialists and includes important new technical information.

• Today, over 283 Certified Bearing Specialists have been successfully tested and more are scheduled to take the exam. We look forward to many more based on the growing number of requests for In-House Training Guide materials, the pre-requisite for BSA's CBS program.
• We know certification provides the value-added benefit of industry expertise and problem solving in an increasingly competitive marketplace because our members and their customers tell us.
• More and more companies are making the commitment to certify sales, service and applications engineers, field service technicians, technical support specialists, inside & outside sales representatives, and account managers.
• To maintain the highest integrity for the program, each Certified Bearing Specialist is required to renew their certification every five years. The recertification process involves submitting a problem and solution or a story about how the applicant has added value through being a CBS.
  

Click here to download a CBS Application
Click here to download a CBS Brochure
Click here to download a Re-Certification Application